Saturday, 1 April 2017

Oink Oink... It's The Sow's Ear Quilt!

While I was at Retreat last weekend, I was able to show off my finished

Sow's Ear Quilt.

Yes, finally it's finished... Yeee-harrr!

This quilt started off as 40 strips of greens & yellows batiks strips... I won them in April last year at Retreat with my Patchwork group.
At that time I really didn't like batiks & the colours were not nice at all... the 'challenge' in the win was to "make something".

It took me a while to get my head around what to do with them, but settled on making a quilt... I reasoned that if I liked the end result I'd keep it, & if not, I'd find a good home for it.

I leafed through my quilt books & took inspiration from a design called Sparkling Gemstones in 'Jelly Roll Quilts', by Pam & Nicky Lintott. (great book)
Another 40 strips of nicer batiks was added, both to give me a more desirable size & also to tone down those original colours.

The back is much darker than the pic below shows it - it's much more like the sashing in the above pic.

How beautiful is the quilting?! I'm completely smitten.
My Quilting Wizard Julie has done a magnificent job, in spite of a few hiccups.
There's a LOT of sewing & cutting in this quilt, but it really wasn't hard... just took time & a good number of dvd's.
Don't have a heart attack... it doesn't start with millions of tiny rectangles & tinier sashing... it's all strip sewing & clever cutting.

This is my Sow's Ear Quilt, because I really did believe I was making a silk purse from what started as a sow's ear.
I'm actually really pleased with the result... AND I've come to really like it, in all its batik-y glory.
So for now it's staying with me.

Binding still needs to be done.

It measures 90" x 77"... that's a lotta binding!
(Upon suggestion from my buddy Maria, I will consider doing it all by machine)

So there you have it... be careful when you play Strips Poker with your patchwork friends after a few drinks... that's how this Sow's Ear Quilt came about!

This turned out beautifully! As a fan of batiks I was hoping that you would fall in love with this quilt before you were finished with it. It is a glorious silk purse in my humble opinion. Have a blessed day.

Oh I love it - I love the design and your way of toning down those loud yucky greens. I'm a green lover - but not those greens! That really is making a purse out of a sow's ear. Listen to Maria about the binding - it will be on in no time. You could sew it on to the back first, flip it over and use a decorative stitch on the front side.

Thank You for visiting my blog... I hope you have a good look around.
My creative interests include stitchery, English Paper Piecing, bag making, a bit of cross stitch, & quilts. I have way too many ideas in my head & not enough time to make them all!